Non-local NIT Srinagar students leaving valley by hundreds

Tue, Apr 12, 2016, 10:58 AM

Some one thousand students of the National Institute of Technology, Srinagar, who are non-locals, have left for thier homes, following the return of Anupam Kher, veteran actor of Kashmiri origin, who was turned back at the airport itself and not allowed to visit them, considering the gravity of the situation created by the local students and the police.

Another 600 students are also planning to leave for home later, saying they feel suffocated in the valley, which the Kashmiris believe is a paradise on the earth.

The students see no return to normalcy on the NIT campus, where the local separatist students and elements have made their lives miserable ever since the India-West Indies semi-final in which the locals made it a point to support the visitors.

The Union HRD Ministry has intervened on their behalf and told the students that they could write their exams, that were supposed to have begun on Monday, after things cool down on the campus. The students have in fact appealed for the NIT moving out of the valley for the safety of the outstation students. But Deputy Chief Minister of Kashmir, Nirmal Singh, lost his cool on the demand.

In an ironic twist to the claims of the votaries of the intolerance debate, it is not the HRD Ministry that was pursuing an agenda on the country's university campuses but the votaries of intolerance themselves who had engineered situations such as in NIT Srinagar.

They should not play with students life and future. Instead if they have any sense of responsibility, for they do not know what they are saying or doing either in Jawaharlal Nehru Central University or Hyderabad Central University, they should let at least the neutral technology students to complete their education without threats to life as posed in Kashmir NIT.

Curious, where are the Abdullahs gone? What is the view of the Congress leaders on the NIT Srinagar issue?